It was probably 1979, when I was starting a standardized test in elementary school, where I first encountered the “race” question (I certainly don’t think “ethnicity” was used much back then). Since I was initially raised in a foster home by an African American family, adopted by a white family, and was bi-racial — I was completely stumped by what to answer.

I asked my teacher, who asked the principal, who thought about it quite a bit and then told me to select the option I most identify with… Not the best solution, but at least they didn’t define it for me — in small town Kansas, in the late-70s, that could have been an expected outcome.

We haven’t progressed very far since that time — seems at best there is either an “Other” option or select multiple category options. But as barriers that kept people & races divided (geographical, cultural, or otherwise), or defined your ethnicity based on slavery era definitions, continue to fall… we can dream of a world where these questions are no longer used (check here if you were born in the Milky Way Galaxy), and work towards a better way to frame the question and it’s plethora of responses…